Disrupting the City: When Capitalism and Government Collide

Citizen engagement applications have been garnering less attention than some of their more profitable counterparts, but they’re gaining traction in the wake of municipal troubles in the United States. SeeClickFix, a startup based in New Haven, is helping local governments from San Francisco to Huntsville, Alabama improve their non-emergency services through a turnkey application package. Users can identify a cosmetic issue in their neighborhoods—graffiti, potholes, abandoned cars—and log the complaint by dropping a pin in SeeClickFix’s map. The complaint relays to the appropriate municipal department and, bureaucratic gods willing, the issue is resolved.